Making Art Popular: The Use of Folkloric Elements in Modern Arab Painting (1950–1990)

This paper provides an overview on how elements inspired by popular arts and life were used until a decade ago in modern Arab painting and point out some main trends which can be detected in spite of important local differences between single countries. Painting, like literature, although being the product of a specific context, participates in broader intellectual debates affecting the whole cultural area in which Arabic is the main vehicle of exchanges.